CFP: Service Learning (3/3/06; MLA '06)

CFP: The English Major at Large:Service Learning, Community Involvement, and Discipline Relevance inTomorrow's Academy.

In the latest issue of /Profession/, Annette Kolodny enunciated anumber of well-known difficulties facing English departments in thepresent, but she also offered some practical advice for facing up to ourproblems. On nearly every page, Kolodny points out the importance ofconnecting our discipline to society's needs and interests. She posesthe underlying question now facing humanities disciplines: "Whatspecial skills do those trained in the humanities offer our multilingualand multicultural society? What services can the humanities perform toenhance the lives of people both on and off campus?"

This session hopes to provide a forum for practical answers to thesepressing questions of /relevance/ for English. Presentations mightinclude accounts of ongoing activities, or ideas for programs that haveyet to come to fruition. Interested in community initiatives, servicelearning projects, skill-based activities, and other ideas for Englishdepartments seeking to answer Kolodny's call for demonstrating how"that which we teach and research is vital to society and a very realversion of practical knowledge."